COCOA PUFF: If you have to gain...

COCOA PUFF: If you have to gain weight for your job, you may as well enjoy it.

Kate Beckinsale did. The "Underworld" star had to put on 20 pounds for her role as actress Ava Gardner with Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Aviator," etonline.com reports. Her method: lots of chocolate.

But Beckinsale, who worked out even as she gained the weight, found out that there can be too much of a good thing.

"Gaining 20 pounds while working out, it takes quite a bit of chocolate," she said. "I'm so sick of it now. I haven't had it in months, which is where I never thought I'd be."

RECOVERING: "American Bandstand" icon Dick Clark was hospitalized this week after suffering a mild stroke. Clark, who turned 75 on Nov. 30, suffered the stroke this week, publicist Paul Shefrin said Wednesday, declining to give any details. He would only say Clark had been hospitalized in the Los Angeles area and that he is recuperating.

Clark is scheduled to host ABC's New Year's Eve festivities in New York, and he says he still plans to do so. It would be his 33rd year welcoming in the new year.

"The doctors tell me I should be back in the swing of things before too long so I'm hopeful to be able to make it to Times Square to help lead the country in ringing in the new year once again," he said in a statement Wednesday.

BACK IN ACTION: There's just no keeping Joan and Melissa Rivers off Hollywood's red carpets.

The mother-daughter tandem, shut out of this year's Emmy Awards because of a contractual tangle, will return starting with next month's Golden Globe Awards for their new employer, the TV Guide Channel.

HOLDING COURT: DMX pleaded guilty Wednesday to driving under the influence of drugs when he plowed through the gates of an airport parking lot in New York after claiming to be a federal agent.

The rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, also pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, prosecutors said. The DUI charge was for the rapper's admission that he was on Valium during the incident. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Simmons was sentenced to a conditional discharge, meaning any violations within a year would land him in jail. He also was fined and ordered to forfeit his 1998 Ford Expedition sport-utility vehicle--which was equipped with a flashing light and siren.

FIRE HIM: If it were up to a couple of the fired contestants from this season of "The Apprentice," Kelly Perdew, one of the final four applicants on the show, would get the boot.

"Personally, I don't care for the guy," Chris Russo, who was fired in Week 10, told The Associated Press after his dismissal.

Outspoken Raj Bhakta took his disapproval a step further. "He's just like a pretty humanless fellow," Bhakta told the AP. "He lacks any chutzpah."

Dance revolution

Ashlee Simpson relates to the character she plays in the upcoming movie "Wannabe."

(OK, get the jokes out of your system.)

"She's searching for herself in a sense, who she is as a woman," Simpson said of the character, aspiring actress Clea. "She's a tomboy, which is a lot of fun to play--I come to work, and it's just three minutes of going through hair and makeup, which is awesome."

In addition, Ashlee says she's "not uncomfortable" talking about her "Saturday Night Live" embarrassment anymore--"I'm just over talking about it."

She wasn't uncomfortable mocking her infamous "hoedown" dance at Wednesday's Billboard Music Awards. After winning the award for best new female artist, Simpson joked that she had a secret for people stuck in awkward situations, then broke out in the dance.